Iris Usershttp://irisusers.com
Using and Extending the Lowes Iris Home Automation SystemFri, 22 Sep 2017 02:47:12 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.4.17SmartThings at Lowes! Is Lowe’s Serious about Iris?http://irisusers.com/smartthings-at-lowes/
http://irisusers.com/smartthings-at-lowes/#respondFri, 22 Sep 2017 02:37:54 +0000http://irisusers.com/?p=846It has been nearly 18 months since we made the switch from Iris to SmartThings. With no regrets and a bright future ahead, we have never looked back. Things have changed over those 18 months, to be sure. For Iris anyhow, despite how much they have changed, they have remained the same. Promises of a better and brighter… Read More »

It has been nearly 18 months since we made the switch from Iris to SmartThings. With no regrets and a bright future ahead, we have never looked back. Things have changed over those 18 months, to be sure. For Iris anyhow, despite how much they have changed, they have remained the same.

Promises of a better and brighter future turned out to be nothing more than meaningless words. Promises of feature parity, you know those v1 foundations of local processing, climate and energy monitoring are both likely remain a distant memory than a feature that will be delivered. As we near the 2 year mark of version 2 the Iris dev team continues to show their programming prowess with botched updates and pre-upgrade system work that leaves systems prone to flakey behavior.

A picture is worth a thousand words…

Since the launch of v2, Lowe’s has received frequent and well-deserved criticism from Iris fans on poorly merchandised, lackluster displays. Amazon Echo, Nest, and now even SmartThings are receiving more prominent displays within Lowes stores. In reality this should not surprise anyone. In the Home Automation space, Iris is a minority player. Lowe’s apparently knows this and has put the more popular and more widely desired products in prominent spaces within their stores. Now it appears that even SmartThings sensors and hubs are taking over space once reserved for Iris products!

Iris’ foreseeable future will continue to be unclear and stagnant; Iris will continue to play a minor role in Lowe’s home automation strategy while the Iris management team continues their struggle to figure out exactly just what Iris is supposed to be. While Iris struggles with an identity crisis Amazon, Nest, Simplisafe, Arlo, Home Kit, Insteon, SmartThings, and even Wink are all on their way to delivering the smart home of the future.

]]>http://irisusers.com/smartthings-at-lowes/feed/0Engadget picks SmartThings as the top Smart Hubhttp://irisusers.com/engadget-picks-smartthings-top-smart-hub/
http://irisusers.com/engadget-picks-smartthings-top-smart-hub/#respondSat, 22 Oct 2016 00:41:20 +0000http://irisusers.com/?p=840Engadget today published results of their research of the top 20 Smart Home systems and named SmartThings as it’s recommended pick. The news shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who uses Iris, but the real shock was that Wink was named runner-up. Sadly, Iris did not even get a mention. No system is perfect, but Samsung has chosen to open… Read More »

Engadget today published results of their research of the top 20 Smart Home systems and named SmartThings as it’s recommended pick. The news shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who uses Iris, but the real shock was that Wink was named runner-up. Sadly, Iris did not even get a mention. No system is perfect, but Samsung has chosen to open up the platform to allow anyone to develop new rules and apps to extend the functionality of the system.

The Samsung SmartThings Hub is the most evolved among a number of well-rounded products already on the market. It’s competitively priced, is compatible with a wide range of third-party devices, and supports most of the major smart-home wireless protocols, including Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, ZigBee and Z-Wave.

Since switching to SmartThings 6 months ago we honestly can concur with their finding. But don’t take our word for it, read the article and leave your comments below.

]]>http://irisusers.com/engadget-picks-smartthings-top-smart-hub/feed/0Goodbye, Iris! Part 2http://irisusers.com/goodbye-iris-part-2/
http://irisusers.com/goodbye-iris-part-2/#commentsThu, 09 Jun 2016 16:34:45 +0000http://irisusers.com/?p=788In the first part of this series we chronicled the instability, the frustration, and inability to achieve any sort of stability with the second generation of Lowe’s Iris. Problems seemed to be everywhere. Some issues were serious, like presence sensors dropping off the system and scenes failing to run to completion. The presence sensor instability had a nasty habit of setting the sirens off at 3am, or… Read More »

In the first part of this series we chronicled the instability, the frustration, and inability to achieve any sort of stability with the second generation of Lowe’s Iris. Problems seemed to be everywhere. Some issues were serious, like presence sensors dropping off the system and scenes failing to run to completion. The presence sensor instability had a nasty habit of setting the sirens off at 3am, or more accurately, about when the family settled into REM sleep.

Other problems were laughable, if for no other reason than to demonstrate a clear lack of quality control by the developers. Misspellings were common in the mobile apps and at times it seemed even Iris’s own devices didn’t like V2 either. Then there was what was dubbed the Iris Dance, the humorously annoying process of roaming around the house pulling batteries from “smart devices” to restore their connection to the hub.

The issues were many, and they had to stop. It was time to take action…

The opinions expressed here are our own, and are based on our real-world experiences.

Requiem for V2

This became an all-too frequent occurrence.

V2 was dead, and whether it could ever be salvaged was not clear, nor was it something we would wait for. Locating a system that could match the feature set of Iris, when it actually worked, took less than an hour of Internet research. It also led to the harsh reality is that Iris was nothing special. Virtually every system had most, if not all of the features we needed. The other options also bested Iris right away in one key area; no monthly fees. At a minimum this would mean unlike Iris, we would not have to pay for the privilege of being an unwitting beta tester.

But there was more than just pretty packaging and fancy technology, the platform had to be open and developer friendly. In the rapid evolving Internet of Things, it is no longer acceptable invest in a platform where the customer is locked into the ecosystem. After all, we own our devices and our home, why should we not have complete control over how they interact?

Lowe’s didn’t stop at walling off the platform, they walled off their staff too!

Openness is a requirement…

Legacy Iris, or V1, for all of its’ limitations was a decent system. It worked most of the time, albeit slowly, but it was very easy and comfortable to interact with. V1 (and subsequently V2) was built around the “walled garden” approach which Apple has become famous for. The curation of devices and rules to ensure seamless and reliable operation was a hallmark of V1. But first generation Iris also had an API, although not officially supported, which gave the hobbyist developer some additional ways to interact with Iris.

But that was legacy Iris, which the world and Lowe’s had left behind. Iris V2 was here and it not only kept the walled garden, it built the walls even taller. With V2 rules were more limited, and Lowe’s did not open any sort of API. In doing so, Lowe’s has effectively hung a sign on Iris stating “Developers NOT Welcome”.

Lowe’s didn’t stop at walling off the platform, they walled off their staff too! Excluding technical support, the Iris team appears to work in the shadows They never interact with customers, and we’ve been told their developers aren’t allowed, even to troubleshoot serious bugs. Sure, Lowe’s has a PR rep who lightly monitors the unofficial Iris forum and social media, occasionally communicating with customers. Those interactions are usually nothing more than a request for a private message. There’s no transparency and no accountability, but that’s not surprising for a system built and operated by a large corporation.

Whatever company stood behind our replacement home automation system would have to do better.

Seeking a brighter future…

The first step in finding a system was to define our needs. We knew what we didn’t want, so we looked at what we did. Key decision points narrowed down to five essential requirements that the next Smart Home platform would meet.

It would be open, including an API, and preferably an offical support forum.

It would support Zigbee, Z-Wave, and WiFi devices.

It would support V2 Iris devices such as Motion and Contact sensors as well as Smart Plugs.

It would support local processing.

It would have a built-in security system supporting cameras, sirens with no 3rd party software required.

With these requirements and some research, we focused on three systems that would reasonably fit our needs.

Insteon was our initial favorite. The hubless architecture and local processing were very attractive.

First look, SmartThings, Wink, and Insteon

There were just three finalists from our selection process; SmartThings, Wink, and Insteon. Each one brought its’ strengths and weaknesses. Some met our needs more than others, but in the end only one could win.

Insteon

The Insteon Hub

Insteon was our initial favorite. The hubless architecture and local processing were very attractive. But radio support was lacking. We liked that Insteon has an official discussion forum and is very friendly to developers. But, while browsing their site we found misleading sales literature which soured us right away. On their site they make a bold claim that Zigbee and Z-Wave technologies can only support “dozens” of devices while Insteon can do thousands. The IoT is confusing enough to newcomers as it is, intentionally misleading customers to sell a product is unacceptable so we chose to pass.

Wink

The Wink Hub

In some ways, Wink is right now where Iris might soon be. It has reached a point of stability after a rocky start and it offers a decent selection of device support. But development has slowed, the company has gone silent, and new features and bug fixes seldom appear. Despite those flaws we gave Wink fair consideration. While Wink lacks an official discussion forum, they do have an open API and local control. But there was uncertainty. Home Depot, the original retail partner for Wink has discontinued carrying most of the system and the company itself seems to be on shaky ground. Ultimately we chose to pass on Wink because of this.

SmartThings

The SmartThings hub, also made by CentraLite.

SmartThings isn’t the perfect platform either, but it matched many of our needs. SmartThings not only offers an open API and a discussion forum, they actively encourage and support third party developers. Local processing is limited to devices with native support and rules based on the SmartLighting app. All other functions do require access to the could and therefore are at risk of an Internet or cloud outage. It’s also fair to point out that SmartThings, like Iris has had their share of issues this year including outages and poor cloud performance. It was the companies response to these issues that caught our attention. Not only did the company acknowledge the problems, they owned up to them. The CEO of SmartThings, Alex Hawkinson issued a direct apology to users of their forum and promised action would be taken. The very fact that the CEO participates on their forum and interacts with users impressed us.

The decision was made, we would go with SmartThings.

For the record…

The opinions expressed here are our own, and are based on our real-world experiences. At no point during the selection or migration process did we ask for, nor receive any special assistance, priority support, or free devices from SmartThings. Our system was chosen exclusively on best-of-breed features and company merit.

Planning the move…

Planning to move a system with nearly 220 devices and over 200 rules was not an easy task. In part 3 we will talk about some of the challenges that we faced during our migration to SmartThings. We will also prove that the grass can in fact be greener too!

]]>http://irisusers.com/goodbye-iris-part-2/feed/4Goodbye, Iris! Part 1http://irisusers.com/why-we-left-iris-part-1/
http://irisusers.com/why-we-left-iris-part-1/#commentsFri, 20 May 2016 21:57:36 +0000http://irisusers.com/?p=760After growing increasingly frustrated with the evolution of Iris V2, the IrisUsers family has decided to part ways with Lowe’s. Don’t get me wrong, I love Iris, and so does the family, or at least we used to. V1, the original Iris was great, especially for its time; plus it was everything that the new Iris is not. It was stable,… Read More »

]]>After growing increasingly frustrated with the evolution of Iris V2, the IrisUsers family has decided to part ways with Lowe’s. Don’t get me wrong, I love Iris, and so does the family, or at least we used to. V1, the original Iris was great, especially for its time; plus it was everything that the new Iris is not. It was stable, supported a decent selection of devices, and was easy to use. V1 also had a web portal, local processing, cellular back up, and a rechargeable battery backup. V2, the new Iris platform, cannot in good conscience lay claim to any of those things. After 6 months, V2 is still riddled with bugs, missing or incomplete features, is lacking in stability. It is still a closed and proprietary ecosystem run by a mysterious team who treats paying customers as beta-testers. In short, V2 has been nothing short of a train wreck, both for Lowes and more importantly, for the IrisUsers family.

Here’s our story on why we left Iris.

In the beginning…

The original Iris Hub

My marriage to Iris began back in September of 2013, roughly a year after the launch of what is now referred to as legacy Iris, or V1. Our system was small to start; a hub, Smart Plug, and GE Outdoor Module, but it began our journey into the land of home automation. For us, back in those days, Iris was merely a means to control Christmas lights, both inside and out. But it grew, slowly at first, gaining momentum as we explored the many new things that it could do. By the end of that first year, our system had grown to over 30 devices; including a thermostat, door locks, keypads, and other smart devices.

Our second year with Iris was even more beneficial and enjoyable than the first. We felt safer, exterior lighting was automating well, and the house was more comfortable. Best of all, we never came home to a dark or cold house. Along the way the IrisUsers family moved into a bigger house and a bigger potential to expand Iris. Things were going well, very well, until the second generation of Iris came along…

Each new feature introduced to the platform seemed to concurrently break an existing one.

Potholes in the road to V2…

I was bit by the home automation bug the moment I first un-boxed the original Iris. Having a near real-time view on our homes electrical usage, quickly glancing to find unlocked doors or open windows became a household fixture. But we soon hit the limits of V1 literally having maxed out the size of the configuration file used by the hub. This meant that we would have to move to V2, and do it soon!

We did so with the foreknowledge that key features were not yet available in V2. It was an acceptable compromise, or so we thought at the time. Serious issues began to appear almost immediately with V2, and grew more severe and widespread as more devices and rules were added to the system. Infrequent software updates which were supposed to help, more often than not, made matters worse. Each new feature introduced to the platform seemed to concurrently break an existing one. Scenes, a supposed replacement for both device groups and system modes turned out to be not only restrictive and inflexible, but highly unreliable as well. In the IrisUsers household, in almost every instance when a scene was run, one of more devices would fail to respond to a command. The result was lights being left on all day, doors not locking, or the heat not turning on. This was an almost daily occurrence and the family was starting to feel the pain. Then there was the week when over 60 devices lost connection from the hub and had to be force removed, then re-paired, only to have the same devices disappear from the system the next day. All due to buggy code and poor internal QA testing procedures.

This became an all-too frequent occurrence.

As a technology professional, Iris become a source of personal embarrassment; it caused more trouble and frustration for everyone who had to interact with it. Daily occurrences of disconnected devices, offline hubs, scenes which never fully ran, were just some of issues we dealt with. Eventually, fixing Iris turned into a nightly routine known as the “Iris Dance” by my very understanding long time girlfriend. The Iris Dance consisted of roaming the house and pulling batteries from offline devices to reconnect them. Z-wave devices were even more problematic. “No Switches!” as I would frequently yell throughout the house as a signal to the family to not use any wall switches as Z-wave exclusion mode was active.

From the very moment I hit “Remove Device” I knew something had gone terribly wrong.

The road to V2 is a dead-end…

As bad as we thought Iris was, about a month ago I was to be shown exactly how much worse it could get. One evening, back in early April I was doing the Iris Dance to restore a Z-Wave dimmer that had disconnected and refused to reconnect. I was logged in to the Iris app, working in the device removal page, or so I thought at the time. And then it happened… From the very moment I hit “Remove Device” I knew something had gone terribly wrong. At that moment, every single smart plug throughout the house immediately snapped off and back on, lights flickered, things beeped, and sensors blinked. Soon after, an eerie silence had befallen the house. Iris was dead

It took a moment for me to realize the magnitude of the events which had just transpired. But then I it hit me. In just a few seconds all 218 devices had vanished from Iris. But why? Was it a system glitch? Did something crash? It would take until the next day for Iris support to provide a clue to the mystery. Their answer? The hub was deleted in the mobile app. Yes, that was the offical answer from support, that I deleted the hub. Or was it just a cover for a poorly designed mobile app?

Concerned, I pushed support for answers as to how I could have deleted the hub when I was clearly in the remove device screen. The response was the same, I had somehow selected the hub and hit “Remove Device”. I would have been willing to accept that as gospel had the device I been managing not been near the end of the device list under “K” for kitchen. But even assuming that is what really what happened for a moment, why were there no safeguards? Seriously, what kind of “smart home” system is built with no safeguards, no means to alert a user that they are unwittingly about to wipe out hundreds of devices with a single button press? I then took another look at the mobile app and put my mind to ease. There were no warning messages, no confirmation dialogs, in fact, no visual indication of the name of the device I was actually deleting!! When I raised the point to support it was suggested that I be more careful in the future. Seriously? The message from the family was clear, they had enough.

Anyone know a good divorce lawyer?

Does Lowe’s really CARE?

Our second generation Iris system, at 218 connected devices, was easily one of the largest in operation. Moving to another platform was a decision that could not made purely of haste or frustration. It also would not come easily nor quickly, and with many devices being locked to Iris, a move would not be cheap. What it was however, something that had to be done. The decision to dump Iris was joyfully unanimous, but also a choice we all knew would require some sacrifice. The family, so beaten down by the never-ending problems with Iris agreed that the pain and expense of changing systems really wasn’t much of a sacrifice after all.

]]>http://irisusers.com/why-we-left-iris-part-1/feed/3That’s All Folks! Iris V1 Shutdown on June 30th.http://irisusers.com/thats-folks-v1-shutdown-june-30th/
http://irisusers.com/thats-folks-v1-shutdown-june-30th/#commentsMon, 02 May 2016 20:35:41 +0000http://irisusers.com/?p=757If you haven’t already heard the news, Lowe’s today sent an e-mail to all users with an active Iris V1 hub. The news wasn’t good. The Iris V1 shutdown is scheduled to take place on June 30th. Like the Revolv hub, Iris V1, the original but more feature complete and stable of the Iris systems will die June… Read More »

If you haven’t already heard the news, Lowe’s today sent an e-mail to all users with an active Iris V1 hub. The news wasn’t good. The Iris V1 shutdown is scheduled to take place on June 30th. Like the Revolv hub, Iris V1, the original but more feature complete and stable of the Iris systems will die June 30th. As with the recent announcement related to cellular service, Lowe’s has generously announced that the last 2 months of V1 will be free. At least Revolv users got a year before their hubs turned into bricks.

The announcement also delivered more, albeit commonly known bad news. The Blue Line Meter Reader will not be supported in V2. This means customers who relied on whole-house energy monitoring (and cell service) in V1 are out of luck. Since V2 doesn’t support power usage tracking currently, support for this device wouldn’t have made a different.

So what next?

Now is a great time to see what the competition has to offer. Truthfully, Iris is far from the only system on the market. Is it is also far from the best. There are many alternatives out there. Take some time to research the competition. SmartThings, Insteon, Staples Connect, and even Wink are suitable alternatives. Find a system that works for you.

When researching, we recommend reading neutral and negative reviews first. They provide excellent insight into the sort of problems that you may face when changing to a new Home Automation system. But, don’t believe everything that you read. Many internet reviewers are showered with free devices and swag in exchange for being a user-advocate or for writing glowing reviews. This is true for sites like Amazon, Best Buy, and even administrators of a certain Iris discussion forum.

The shutdown of V1 is just the beginning, we will be making an announcement on the future of the IrisUsers blog very soon too. Stay tuned…

]]>http://irisusers.com/thats-folks-v1-shutdown-june-30th/feed/1Cellular Service Discontinued by Loweshttp://irisusers.com/3g-cellular-service-discontinued-lowes/
http://irisusers.com/3g-cellular-service-discontinued-lowes/#respondTue, 19 Apr 2016 16:06:32 +0000http://irisusers.com/?p=712Cellular data service for Iris has been discontinued according to a recently e-mailed announcement from IrisByLowes. The notice warned that on June 30th all cellular backup service plans would be turned off. It also stated that current USB modems will not be supported but new modems will be free when the replacement service is launched. In their Cellular FAQ, IrisByLowes suggests some costly workarounds for users who want or need to have… Read More »

Cellular data service for Iris has been discontinued according to a recently e-mailed announcement from IrisByLowes. The notice warned that on June 30th all cellular backup service plans would be turned off. It also stated that current USB modems will not be supported but new modems will be free when the replacement service is launched.

In their Cellular FAQ, IrisByLowes suggests some costly workarounds for users who want or need to have cellular data service. The FAQ also warns customers to expect a gap of several months until a new service is offered. As a consolation to loyal customers, Lowes will stop billing for the service at the end of April. This news has rankled some loyal Iris Users who have taken the news as another bump in the road to version 2.

The best solution would be to install a cellular router. They are available from most major wireless carriers. Here is an example of a Verizon device. You would then simply plug your Iris hub into the router like you would any other modem in a home with internet available via landline. An additional benefit of a cellular router is you can also connect it to a traditional Wi-Fi router to provide Wi-Fi at your location.

Cellular data is gone, what happens to my hub?

For those who were waiting for this functionality in V2 you are simply out of luck. The news gets worse for V1 customers with cell service. In the past customers with poor, or no internet could subscribe to a cellular-only plan. Lowes will effectively be abandoning these customers on June 30th by leaving them with non-working hubs. Customers who have a cellular backup plan will lose the redundancy they have come to depend on.

What can I do?

If you have subscribed to a cellular plan you should start planning to implement your own replacement soon. IrisByLowes has provided some helpful tips on how to get started albeit at a significant expensive to their customers. If you have an existing data plan you may be able to save a little money by adding a new modem to your existing plan. Home routers have also evolved with some models including USB ports that recognize the connection of a USB cellular modem and automatically fail over to it when the primary Internet fails.

Are there other options?

With cellular service gone, Lowes has removed a unique and powerful feature that made Iris stand out among the competition. The Internet of Things and home automation are rapidly evolving spaces. There little value being “locked in” a closed ecosystem that hides most of its usability behind a pay wall. If you are contemplating a move to V2, or are in need of cellular backup service, now just might be a good time take a look at what the completion has to offer.

We have made the Iris System Monitor even better! The Iris Users Iris System Monitor (ISM) now checks for the latest platform versions and monitors even more Iris V2 services. Our Iris status tool is built upon a proven, cloud-based monitoring solution. The Iris System Monitor checks all Iris services every 5 minutes then reports on the last 5 events for each service.

The next time an Iris outage hits, check the Iris System Monitor for a complete summary of the system status first!

]]>http://irisusers.com/iris-system-monitor-updated/feed/0Save Instant Pack Film – You can help!http://irisusers.com/can-help-save-instant-pack-film/
http://irisusers.com/can-help-save-instant-pack-film/#respondWed, 16 Mar 2016 03:51:13 +0000http://irisusers.com/?p=659Long before there was Home Automation, before computers connected the world, and digital cameras lived in everyone’s pocket, there was the Polaroid Instant pack film camera, an innovation released to the world over 50 years ago. It’s hard to escape the realization that world is a much different place than it was 50 years ago; it was a time when instant gratification had… Read More »

Long before there was Home Automation, before computers connected the world, and digital cameras lived in everyone’s pocket, there was the Polaroid Instant pack film camera, an innovation released to the world over 50 years ago. It’s hard to escape the realization that world is a much different place than it was 50 years ago; it was a time when instant gratification had a uniquely different meaning. It was a time when instant photography was not about Instagram, it was about the anticipation of waiting for the a new memory to develop, quite literally in front of your eyes.

Instant photography was as much about taking a picture as it was a social experience. I have many fond memories as kid in growing up the 70’s and early 80’s with groups of family and friends huddling around Polaroid pictures as they developed. These memories to this day invoke a feeling of anticipation that just cannot be satisfied by todays digital tech. What is even more remarkable than the technology of that time is the fact that one can still buy commercially available film for those same cameras, or at least you could…

Not the Polaroid you grew up with….

Chances are back in the day you or someone you knew owned a Polaroid camera, but was kind was it? For many the name Polaroid brings to mind the plastic, instant prints with the large white border at the bottom, a technology known as Integral film. However, peel-apart pack film is a much different animal which brings a more realistic photographic quality that is as close to a lab developed photographic print as one can get with an instant camera. The end result is a glossy, paper photograph that is virtually indistinguishable from a print made in a photo lab.

Even with the demise of Polaroid’s film business in the late 2000’s, FujiFilm, based in Japan continued to carry the torch by producing a wide variety of commercial pack films. Over the years, one-by-one, Fuji has quietly pared down the line of pack films until the last one, Fujifilm FP-100C remained. That has all changed… Fuji has recently announced that all pack film production will cease, leaving millions of cameras destined for landfills while bringing instant photography one step closer to the history books.

You can help…

Florian “Doc” Kaps, the founder of the Impossible Project which successfully saved production of Polaroid SX-70 and 600 Integral Instant Films has stepped up and is trying to work with Fuji to save production of FP-100C color pack film, the last surviving pack film to be manufactured. Even if you don’t own one of these cameras, or have ever used one, you can help keep the memories alive.

Visit savepackfilm.net and learn more about his efforts, sign the petition, and share this on your social media feeds. If enough people speak up, pack film can be saved.

]]>http://irisusers.com/can-help-save-instant-pack-film/feed/0Outage is Over – What you need to know!http://irisusers.com/outage-is-over-what-you-need-to-know/
http://irisusers.com/outage-is-over-what-you-need-to-know/#commentsThu, 10 Mar 2016 22:35:07 +0000http://irisusers.com/?p=652For most, Tuesday’s Iris outage is over with some experiencing a few minor, lingering issues. IrisByLowes has released an impact statement with some very helpful troubleshooting information for anyone who is still experiencing issues with their system. On March 8th at approximately 3:00 PM EST the Iris platform experienced a database failure due to a process issue which has since… Read More »

]]>For most, Tuesday’s Iris outage is over with some experiencing a few minor, lingering issues. IrisByLowes has released an impact statement with some very helpful troubleshooting information for anyone who is still experiencing issues with their system.

On March 8th at approximately 3:00 PM EST the Iris platform experienced a database failure due to a process issue which has since been corrected.

As a result, the database was restored from information saved up through March 7th at 10:00 AM EST. This restore completed around 4:00PM EST on March 8th.

Due to the restoration of data and the subsequent platform restart required, the following issues arose for some users:

ISSUE: Any change made to your Iris system after March 7th around 10:00 AM EST until March 8th 4:00PM EST was lost. This includes, for example, added devices, new or changed rules, settings changes made to services like Security.

RESOLUTION: We are working to restore any accounts which were added in this timeframe along with their hubs and devices. This is only possible for accounts which haven’t been re-created by the user since the 8th. This includes those who migrated from the previous version of Iris. This is expected to be done during the day of March 10th. For those existing users who added or modified a device, rule, scene, person, or changed a setting on a Service these changes will need to be manually redone.

ISSUE: Several customers had their settings for Services (e.g. Security or Climate) return to default settings. Symptoms of this would be your thermostat changing mode to Auto with a default schedule in place or the entry and exit delay of your Alarm returning to 15 seconds.

RESOLUTION: While we continue to investigate restoring your custom settings automatically there is not ETA on this and it is recommended you manually reconfigure your services to your preferences.

ISSUE: Rules were not able to be edited from the mobile applications.

RESOLUTION: This was resolved for most all rules on March 9th. The resolution for fixing the remaining rules is expected on March 10th.

ISSUE: For some customers default rules for Smart Buttons, KeyFobs, and Pendants were recreated. This did not remove any existing rules.

RESOLUTION: These extraneous rule were removed on March 9th.

ISSUE: Pin codes for most users did not restore correctly on March 8th. This means that most users pin codes will not work for the keypad or door locks. Also if you had people in your access list for door locks it is likely they were removed.

RESOLUTION: Pin codes have been restored as of morning of March 10th. We are working toward restoring the access lists for your locks once the pin codes are restored however there is not specific ETA. It is suggested you manually recreate your Access list for your locks. You may also fix your pin code manually by changing it from the side menu in the application.

ISSUE: There are reports of some devices for a moderate number of users showing as online but are not controllable and do not respond to a rule firing or a schedule.

RESOLUTION: This is being investigated and is targeted to be resolved on March 10th.

If you are experiencing an issue not listed here, please send a detailed email to IrisSupport@lowes.com with what you are seeing. Please know that while we may not respond we are monitoring each email and are working hard to address all issues which are reported.

We hope this information is helpful and we appreciate your patience,

The Iris Team

We have confirmed that stability has again been achieved. Please attempt the recommended troubleshooting steps before reaching out to support for assistance. This has been a rough week for everyone involved and we want to extend our sincere appreciation for all of the hard work and long hours that the Iris Team must have put in to recovering from this unfortunate incident.

]]>http://irisusers.com/outage-is-over-what-you-need-to-know/feed/2Iris Outage – What you need to know!http://irisusers.com/iris-outage-what-you-need-to-know/
http://irisusers.com/iris-outage-what-you-need-to-know/#commentsTue, 08 Mar 2016 22:31:35 +0000http://irisusers.com/?p=640If you are having a problem logging into your V2 Iris system you are not alone. We have been alerted by the Iris management team that there is in fact an outage that is currently affecting the system. The outage is affecting different users in different ways. Some users are able to log in, other cannot. Those who can… Read More »

]]>If you are having a problem logging into your V2 Iris system you are not alone. We have been alerted by the Iris management team that there is in fact an outage that is currently affecting the system.

The outage is affecting different users in different ways. Some users are able to log in, other cannot. Those who can login are missing things such as devices, history, or are experiencing odd or unexpected behavior.

Please do not call Iris support for assistance, they cannot help until all systems are back online.

The best course of action is to sit tight; avoid logging into the Iris app and wait for the engineers to fix the problem. Do not attempt to fix any issues yourself; do not re-pair devices, change rules, or make any other changes.

Update 6:11pm EST:

Here’s a list of issues we are experiencing on our own system.

Devices: Any added/changed in the past 24 hours or so are missing.

Rules: Any added/changed in the past 24 hours or so are missing. Rule pick lists not working.

Scenes: Any added/changed in the past 24 hours or so are missing.

Security: All Users missing from Alarm Notification List

Cameras: Missing one device. (Paired months ago)

Climate: All devices except thermostats missing.

History: Not updating right now.

Water: Card not working.

Home & Family: All fobs lost all associations with people.

Update 6:33pm EST:

IrisByLowes has issued the following statement…

On March 8th a portion of the Next Generation platform experienced an issue. Reverting to our most recent backup resolved this issue.

Normal recovery processes can take several hours before full system functionality returns. Until then, it is possible you might experience some abnormal device behavior. Please refrain from troubleshooting your system for the time being. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your patience as we work through this resolution.

Update March 9th, 12:49am EST:

IrisByLowes has issued the following statement…

The Iris platform is currently restored with the following exceptions:

– Users are still unable to edit existing rules. This is expected to be resolved by no later than EOD March 9th.

– Some users may have experienced their pin codes no longer working or a loss of authorized people on a lock. This is under investigation for resolution and can be manually repaired by resetting a pin code and/or re-authorizing a person on a lock.

– Users who added an account or devices from 10:00 AM EST on March 7th through 4:00 PM EST on March 8th may not see their new device or account. We are working toward a resolution for this and will continue to provide updates.

– A small percentage of Smart Buttons and Key Fobs may have re-created their default rules (for example a Smart Button triggering a Panic Alarm). We are working to remove those by EOD on March 9th.

In addition to the official statement, we have found that many devices are not controllable at this time. It is likely there are other issues that have not been directly addressed in their update.

Update March 9th, 10:49am EST:

Through our own testing, we have also learned that this Iris Outage is causing spontaneous alarm activation to occur without any external trigger.

We we will continue to post updates as more information on this Iris outage is available.